Pediatricians now have a new and simple way to diagnose a serious problem facing our nation’s children – thanks to David Kaelber, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., MetroHealth System pediatrician, internist, and chief medical informatics officer and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researcher and faculty member. Nearly 75% of cases of hypertension and 90% of cases of prehypertension in children and adolescents go undiagnosed. These troubling statistics were documented in previously published research by Dr. Kaelber. From this research, Dr. Kaelber and fellow researchers felt that one of the main reasons for the under-diagnosis may be due to the complex chart currently used to help physicians and medical personnel identify high blood pressure in children. So Dr. Kaelber’s team simplified the chart – focusing solely on a child’s age and gender – eliminating the need for a height percentile and reducing the number of values in the blood pressure table from 476 to just 64. The revised chart and accompanying description are published in the June issue of the journal Pediatrics.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Heart Association recommend that blood pressure checks be done at all pediatric visits for health care (including dental and optometric appointments) for children ages 3 to 18. The current standard chart used by healthcare providers to evaluate pediatric blood pressure is from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and includes hundreds of normal and abnormal blood pressure values. In order to differentiate between normal and abnormal readings, providers need to, not only remember the variety of blood pressure ranges, but also know the child’s height percentile – which can be difficult to verify, especially in non-primary care settings.

In re-designing the chart, Dr. Kaelber’s team reduced the systolic and diastolic blood pressure cutoff values to one value for girls and one value for boys for each year of life from ages 3 to 18 plus.

Researchers used the lower limit of height (5th percentile) in the abnormal blood pressure range for a given gender and age. While they note this may incorrectly flag some taller children as being in the abnormal blood pressure range, the researchers predict this number will be small compared to the number of children with prehypertension and hypertension who are identified. Any reading at or above the listed numbers in the chart will indicate a child who needs further evaluation by a physician.

“We know that children with high blood pressure often become adults with heart disease and other serious medical conditions,” says Dr. Kaelber. “Anything that helps health care providers in identifying this life-threatening condition early is essential. The long-term solution will no doubt involve electronic medical records and other electronic tools, but until that is available in all healthcare settings, this simplified table should be a helpful screening tool.”

The MetroHealth System
The MetroHealth System is one of the nation’s largest public health providers, ranking in the top 1% of all hospitals nationwide for quality in patient care. As the region’s only Level I adult and pediatric trauma and burn center, MetroHealth is a nationally-recognized leader in critical care and rehabilitation, community health, high-risk perinatal care, and senior health. MetroHealth offers the region’s largest urban-based network of community health centers focused on reducing health disparities through comprehensive care to vulnerable populations. MetroHealth achieved Magnet designation in 2005. Founded in 1837, MetroHealth has been a major affiliate of Case Western Reserve University since 1914 and all MetroHealth physicians are CWRU faculty. MetroHealth is one of Cleveland’s largest employers with more than 6,200 employees. For more information on The MetroHealth System, visit http://www.metrohealth.org.

About Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Founded in 1843, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine is the largest medical research institution in Ohio and is among the nation’s top medical schools for research funding from the National Institutes of Health. The School of Medicine is recognized throughout the international medical community for outstanding achievements in teaching. The School’s innovative and pioneering Western Reserve2 curriculum interweaves four themes-research and scholarship, clinical mastery, leadership, and civic professionalism-to prepare students for the practice of evidence-based medicine in the rapidly changing health care environment of the 21st century. Eleven Nobel Laureates have been affiliated with the school.

Annually, the School of Medicine trains more than 770 M.D. and M.D./Ph.D. students and ranks in the top 25 among U.S. research-oriented medical schools as designated by U.S. News & World Report “Guide to Graduate Education.”

The School of Medicine’s primary affiliate is University Hospitals Case Medical Center and is additionally affiliated with MetroHealth Medical Center, the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and the Cleveland Clinic, with which it established the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University in 2002.

Source: Case Western Reserve University